![]() The scene was then directed the Hauer way by Keith Heygate. We waited another hour, and when the money- man eventually arrived, he adjudicated in favor of Hauer. After nearly an hour of fruitless argument, the producer was sent for. ![]() But Rutger absolutely refused to turn his back on the camera. ![]() Peoples wanted to end the star's first sequence in a Red City street with Rutger turning his back on the camera, walking away down the bustling thoroughfare and being swallowed up by the unknowing crowd. The first morning he had a set-to with Rutger Hauer. I didn't see much of David Peoples on the set. He came in right at the end for close- ups. It's interesting that the star wasn't even on the set for most of Ruehland's vigorous fighting. On the other hand, just about all Glenn Ruehland's footage was left in. She bravely performed her own stunts (receiving many spontaneous rounds of applause from the assembled crowd artists), but all her efforts came to nought. And almost as bad as the deletions already mentioned, was the pruning of Joan Chen's part in the climactic game. This ceremony was also hacked out of the final cut. I was on the set at the same time as Rutger Hauer, Delroy Lindo, Gandhi McIntyre, Joan Chen, Hugh Keays-Byrne (a wonderful actor in a made-to-order villainous role, which was cut to ribbons in the editing room), and numerous extras in an elaborate opening ceremony to the Red City games. A fine acrobat, a naturally gifted, charismatic performer, handsome as they come, with a captivating personality, he looked set for major stardom. That's a shame, because he was easily the best actor in the movie. He's no longer in "Salute of the Jugger" at all. Indeed, not only was this scene (and another in which I figured as worshiper in a weirdly colorful religious ceremony at a Red City temple), completely deleted, but the whole sub-plot involving this young lad was removed. An earlier scene in the street in which I was accosted by a young boy, excitedly telling me that he'd just found a magic stone, was eliminated. But, aside from a brief shot of me in the Red City street as I pass by Gandhi on the right of the wide-wide screen, my part was left on the cutting-room floor. I worked on the film for only four days of a ten-week shooting schedule. Alas, the off-camera drama proved far more fascinating than the rather superficial, futuristic, action/adventure, grind-house offering that finally emerged on the screen.
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